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Session 3215

Research Experiences for Undergraduate Students in Structural Engineering

Anant R. Kukreti

University of Cincinnati

1. Introduction

This paper describes the experiences provided in a five-year Site for undergraduate research in "Structural Engineering" with a special focus on techniques to study the "Development of Enhanced Materials, Structural Components and Structural Assemblages Used for Seismic Performance Evaluation Studies." The Site was offered at the School of Civil Engineering and Environmental Science, University of Oklahoma (OU) during 1999 and 2000, and then at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering (CEE) at University of Cincinnati (UC) during 2001 to 2003. This Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) Site was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). The purpose of this REU Site was to encourage talented undergraduates to enroll in graduate school by exposing them to research, and to increase their interest in graduate research. In this paper, first the basic approach adopted to plan the REU Site is presented, followed by a description of how it was administered each year. Then a detailed description of the projects executed in different years is presented. In the end the evaluation process used, and the outcomes from the whole experience are summarized. Hopefully, this documentation will help others in planning similar experiences for engineering undergraduates.

Enhanced analytical and computational capabilities and higher strength materials have led to lighter, larger and more complex and unconventional civil structures. To design such structures, one must be able to evaluate their overall behavior under both static and dynamic (seismic) heavy overloads, both in laboratory and field environments. The inherent non-linearities in describing the material behavior and the interaction between the components of a structure, makes simply using analytical tools for studying the response inadequate. This can only be done by experimental testing. Research projects for the REU Site are designed to introduce undergraduate students from diverse engineering backgrounds to structural engineering research. The “hands-on” laboratory and field research experiences included in these projects would help in recruiting and retaining them in civil engineering programs. The need for cultivating learning environments for stimulating student’s learning in undergraduate engineering is well established.

Proceedings of the 2004 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2004, American Society for Engineering Education

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Kukreti, A. (2004, June), Research Experiences For Undergraduate Students In Structural Engineering Paper presented at 2004 Annual Conference, Salt Lake City, Utah. 10.18260/1-2--14108